Germany Day 13 – “Beamer” day !

Thurs Sept 13, 2018 – Munich

Keshav had planned the trip to the BMW museum and showroom for this day. Later in the day, Anu was to join us for lunch at Marienplatz and we were all planning to go shopping after that. So after breakfast, we started out for our trip to the BMW Museum and BMW Welt. We first went to the BMW Welt which is their “experience” centre. People can touch and feel their cars, motorbikes and also the delivery of any BMW car bought at some other dealer point can be done from here. There is a ramp connecting the BMW Welt to the Museum and this whole area is called Olympiapark. Olympia Park is an olympic park constructed for the 1972 summer olympics. The Olympic village is also the site where 11 Israeli players and a German policeman were murdered during the 1972 Olympics by Black September, a Palestinian terrorist group.

We checked out a few new cars and then took pictures while riding the motorbikes. Keshav and Krishnan both love motorcycles … I am more enthusiastic about cars :). We learnt about BMW acquiring the iconic “MINI” brand from the British Motor Company and also the “Rolls Royce” since 1998.

The above car opens from the front and the steering wheel is stuck to the door. Keshav has had the opportunity to sit inside one of these and he was very worried when he opened the door and the steering wheel came with it :):). He thought at that time that he had done something wrong and he would end up paying a fine !!

Next came the customized, uber luxurious Rolls Royces. There were two of them on display and you could only gaze at them and not sit inside. My blog’s inspiration Osho had “90” Rolls Royces so I felt an immediate connect with the brand …. The bonnet of these giants is taller than me !!

After enjoying the cars we went to the first floor where bikes are on display and you can experience them by sitting on them – not riding them of course.

I sat on one of the scooter-like bikes and Krishnan rode pillion. I have never managed to ride a geared scooter or a motorbike, except a moped. I took to driving the car like a duck to water but except for a cycle nothing on two wheels excites me.

From the showroom/experience centre we walked across to the Museum. Keshav took this amazing picture of ours in front of the Museum building.

At the museum we found the earliest models of bikes and cars to the latest releases. We saw the history of BMW and the cars that were launched each year. Its an auto enthusiast’s heaven ! BMW manufactured helicopters initially and then ventured into bikes and cars. Some of their cars launched in 1934 could do 200 kmph … we were left wondering about how the road infrastructure was so developed in those years and the famed German engineering. Its no wonder that Hitler was feared because he was backed by the brilliant German engineering which was decades ahead of the US and other countries at that time.

Here is a collage of some of the pics taken at the museum.

The car with the number plate “007” is indeed a James Bond car that was used in the movie “Golden Eye”.

My personal favourite were these colourful printed cars, displayed at the point where you exit the museum.

As we exited the museum, Keshav took another great picture of Krishnan and I with the Olympia Park viewing tower in the background.

From the BMW Welt we took the U-Bahn to reach Marienplatz the main market place. Many historical buildings dot this strip of land and there is an open market with meat, vegetables and fruits of every kind on sale.

As we walked towards our lunch stop, we couldn’t resist drinking the fresh orange juice that was being sold in one of the juice stalls. Krishnan refused to listen to me and drank a combo juice of grapefruit and rose which was a little bitter. Finally he drank the fresh orange juice :).

We went to a Thai restaurant to eat lunch and Anu joined us there. While waiting for food to be served we saw the dry run of the horse carriage carrying beer barrels that would apparently be rolling around during the Oktoberfest.

After lunch we went to our first shopping place – the “Globetrotter” store. Its a massive 5 level sports and camping goods store on the lines of REI. We wanted to buy messenger bags. Didn’t find them here and went over to the Sportscheck store where we found them. On the way we took a selfie now that our human selfie stick Anu was with us 🙂

After window shopping for a couple of hours we went back home. An amazing picture that Keshav that took on his Samsung 8 phone of the twilight sky. While it was difficult for us to accept that any phone of Samsung could outperform an Apple phone … the camera on this Samsung phone is incredible. But the comparison was with the iPhone 6+ which is a couple of generations older :):). Its difficult to shift our loyalty to Apple.

A lovely day spent with lovely people.